Pete Hegseth urges troops to register to vote

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday urged U.S. service members and their families to register and vote in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, warning that 300,000 troops did not register to cast votes two years ago.

“Regardless of your home state or current duty status, you can use a standardized federal postcard to register and request a ballot, and if you’re forward deployed and your standard ballot is delayed, you can use the federal write-in absentee ballot. All of these processes are straightforward and protected by law,” Hegseth said in a nearly two-minute video released Friday, pointing the armed forces to the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) website .

The Pentagon chief’s message to commanders was the same.

“You’re not telling them who to vote for. You’re just telling them to vote,” he said.

Hegseth also told voting assistance officers in the video to “get out there” and register the service members.

“Every warrior deserves an opportunity to cast his or her ballot, and be confident that it will be counted. Keep our nation the land of the free and the home of the brave,” he said. “Get registered and vote.”

About 67 percent of active-duty military members were registered to vote in the 2024 election, a 3-point drop compared with 2020, according to the FVAP .

Seventy-one percent of the 1.3 million active-duty military members are eligible to cast an absentee ballot with special protections because they are stationed away from their voting residence, the FVAP said.

Hegseth has been active in the lead-up to the midterms.

In May, he traveled to Kentucky to stump for Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) primary challenger, former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein.

“War fighters understand mission, they understand teamwork, they understand loyalty, and they understand that in the middle of a fight, you don’t weaken your own side to advance to the objective, and that’s what Ed Gallrein understands, because he has lived it,” Hegseth said at the time.

Gallrein ended up defeating Massie, a prominent Trump critic, in the Republican primary. Earlier this month, Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Hegseth.

Hegseth also went to Iowa last month to campaign for Rep. Zach Nunn (R) at the Iowa State Fair.